The freeway alert sign on the southbound 57 freeway at Wagner Avenue, Anaheim, warns that a distracted, texting while driving, ticket is not worth it. BRUCE CHAMBERS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Authorities issued more than 57,000 tickets statewide in April to drivers on hand-held cellphone use and texting violations.

The number of tickets is up from the 52,000 tickets issued in April of 2011, the California Office of Traffic Safety said.

The citations were issued by the California Highway Patrol and 265 law enforcement agencies that participated during national Distracted Driving Awareness Month.

"Unfortunately, we're seeing that the problem of cell phone use for talking and texting while driving is not going away anytime soon," said OTS Director Christopher J. Murphy.

"There are those who understand the dangers and have curtailed their use, while others think the hazards apply to everyone else but them," Murphy said.

According to an OTS survey, 10.8 percent of drivers on the road use cell phones at any given daylight time, up from 7.3 percent in 2011.

Drivers between 16 to 25 years old showed a dramatic rise in cell phone usage, doubling from 9 percent to 18 percent, the OTS said.

Researchers were staged at more than 130 intersections in 17 counties to observe whether drivers had a phone to their ear, were wearing a Bluetooth or headset device, were manipulating a hand-held device, or were talking while holding a phone in their hand but not to their ear.

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